India international and Royal Challengers Bangalore seamer Umesh Yadav feels the depth in India’s pace resources has been built with a captain who likes fast-bowlers and believes in them.
“Virat [Kohli] is a fast-bowler’s captain,” Umesh told Sportstar from the UAE, where he is training with the RCB squad for IPL 2020.
“His aggressive brand of captaincy suits the team in all formats. Fast-bowlers, especially in Twenty20 cricket, enter with an aggressive mindset. It is about maintaining an attacking attitude and not a defensive one. When you are always looking to take wickets, your head is in the right place.”
The conditions could bring spin into the equation. Umesh feels the bowling group should be prepared to adjust accordingly.
“Going by the net sessions here so far, the practice wickets have been a bit sticky, slightly on the flatter side,” said Umesh.
“If there is no seam or swing movement and there is no pace off the pitch, then you need to hit the deck hard to extract pace.
“It depends on the surfaces during the tournament: if it’s medium and gets slower as the match progresses, then we have to adapt accordingly.”
Umesh praised RCB head coach Simon Katich and team director Mike Hesson for briefing the players about their roles.
“I’ve worked with Katto during our time at KKR [Kolkata Knight Riders]. Both him and Mike are very calm and chilled out. It’s my first season with Mike.
“As team director, he has done a good job of assigning each member of the team clear-cut individual roles,” he said.
